Anybody have any idea what this is all about? its like this in many of the images i took that night though not all of them, exposure level doesn't seem to matter as it shows in extremely over exposed and underexposed and properly exposed images.
UPDATE: This is actually an HDR image (in-camera 5D3 HDR)... i guess this is what happens when the scene is just too crazy for the Digic5+
It's not the camera or the card or the card reader. It's conversion or post-processing. You haven't bothered to detail either. You don't even say if you shot Raw or JPEG. This basic information that is necessary to help us help you.
You say it is HDR. It doesn't look like a multiple exposure HDR, but could be. It's not HDR unless it is multiple bracketed exposures, even if it has been processed through some "hdr" software, also unspecified.
this is an in-camera HDR process with the 5D3 (which results in one jpeg (hdr) file). After this i used photoshop to reduce the size to the 600k upload limit. it "looks" exactly the same as the original file
The in camera HDR has several options, including art effects. Try the different settings to see what results. If you use RAW, then you can vary the effects in post processing. jpeg bakes them in
I think that when there is some big difference between the frames using the in-camera HDR, the camera just gives up and doesn't work hard trying to correct those areas. I think the gray area confused the camera either because of the exposure in those areas or perhaps because of the water moving (or likely a combination of both), and just gave up trying to blend those areas. It is weird though and I agree that you should contact Canon just to make sure they know about this and see if they have any info.
Ralph Conway wrote:
Looks like kind of random failure in HDR processing to me, too.
Did you save the raws?
Ralph
+1
If this happens on individual RAW files you have a problem, if it is just in the HDR conversion it's more than the in-camera HDR can handle (unsurprisingly)
Shoot in Raw mode, even for in-camera HDR. Then you can examine the individual Raw exposures to see what they hold.
If you did or do shoot in Raw, you can take the constituent Raws and process them in Canon DPP's HDR modes. You'll be able to see how adjusting the parameters affects the images and how the different modes come out.
I am sure your camera is not at fault.
Still missing are whether it was a one shot "hdr" or a multiple exposure HDR.
Are you able to reproduce the effect? If you can, then it would be very interesting to see the source Raw or Raws, converted in DPP or PS or LR, converted straight in Standard mode or Faithful mode and resized for the web.
"Did you have raccoons operating the camera or computer?"
I agree -- it seems you've uncovered a glitch in the in-camera program, having to do with extreme high contrast and DR range exceeding the normal in-camera HDR function. How has it worked in "normal" exposure situations, without the sun being in the picture?
In camera features like HDR would not be my choice.
You have surrendered artistic control to algorithms when HDR as a PP tool is over used & abused or at least miss-understood. Don't get me wrong, the basic concept of expanding dynamic range with a bracketing tool is good, but if you want to "own" the photograph, better to make the blending choices.
